The Greenhouse Effect: The potential for positive byproducts from the campus greenhouse

In October 2021, the University of Alberta campus solar greenhouse opened. Unlike many projects on campus, it has the ability to involve individuals from faculties across campus.

Greenhouses operate as a protective structure for plants from rain, wind, and snow. Additionally, the transparent structure allows sunlight to heat the greenhouse, resulting in the regulation of temperature and humidity. Despite the simplicity of greenhouses, they have the unique ability to contribute to a variety of systems, extending beyond just ecological ones. Could greenhouses have a larger role to play on campus than just providing produce? 

Greenhouse additions enable it to function effectively in Edmonton’s cold climate

Carlos Lange is an associate professor in the department of mechanical engineering at the U of A. Lange helped guide and oversee the solar greenhouse project in 2021. 

One of the greatest limitations to agriculture in Edmonton is the length of the seasons, Lange said. This not only presents a challenge for traditional agriculture, but greenhouses as well. Lange explained some of the additions to the greenhouse in order for it to function effectively in Edmonton’s cold climate. Ultimately these features can add one or two months to the typical growing season, Lange said. 

“By adding solar panels, an electrical circuit with a battery, and a heat pump, we are able to provide heat at the coldest points of the night, at the beginning and end of season.”

The sun is able to support the greenhouse during the day, and these systems cover the times it cannot. 

The added features also help maintain a comfortable temperature during the summer, when there are periods of excess sunlight and the greenhouse is at risk of overheating. According to Lange, the heat pump can be turned into an air conditioner. Power from the solar panels keeps the air conditioner running.

“Because there is plenty of solar power in the batteries, they then can run the air conditioning in the hottest time of the day, preventing temperatures from rising to a point of harm for the plants.” 

The campus greenhouse acts as a laboratory for students, Lange says

In addition to growing plants, the greenhouse can effectively act as a laboratory for students, outside the stressful confines of a class, Lange explained. 

“[The greenhouse] is a place where students from agriculture, permaculture clubs, and others, can test the limits of conditions where plants can grow and be healthy or produce more, in a small environment that they have access to.” 

This allows students to apply the skills they have learned in the classroom, he explained. 

“It can help students in engineering learn about net-zero, powerhouses, energy conservation, conditioning of living environment, and what active or passive measures they can use in the future when they work on building construction and other things.” 

According to Lange, there is immense value in having a program that is interdisciplinary, as use is not exclusive. 

“Other students in business and social [programs] can use the greenhouse indirectly as a place where they can test ideas and see what works.” 

Local food systems and “food from nowhere”

“Food from nowhere” is a concept that describes food whose origins and processes of production are largely unknown to consumers. Unlike nutritional details, this information is not easily available upon purchasing an item. Within a global food system, “food from nowhere” is ever more common. Additionally, when a product has to travel long distances to reach its location, the carbon footprint of that product increases.

“When we want to have foods from different places that we perhaps can’t grow here, there’s some major environmental cost to that,” Ken Caine, an environmental sociologist in the department of sociology, said.

Personally, Caine has turned to supporting local food systems and developing relationships with the people he purchases his food from. 

“I know all the families, whether I buy my vegetables, or I buy fish, I know where they’re coming from. I know the people they worked with to provide those products or if they grow it themselves.” 

One of the greatest challenges in the growth of local food systems is the cost, Caine explained. Oftentimes local markets can’t offer the same low prices that grocery chains can. For many families and individuals, there is not much of a choice. According to Caine, more attention needs to be put to making local food more affordable for people.

“I’m very privileged in that I can go and spend twice as much for something at a farmers’ market.”

Rather than completely overturning the current system of purchasing food from an international market, Caine thinks that the answer lies in a mixture of different systems. With high quality soil and large amounts of space, Edmonton has an opportunity to grow produce in a more conventional way.

“Small scale farming, farm plots, or community gardening. So using the land as we’ve always done it and learning from it.”

Food deserts and food insecurity

Due to a combination of factors, food insecurity is a growing issue in Canada. As described by the Government of Canada, food insecurity is “the inability to acquire or consume an adequate diet quality or sufficient quantity of food in socially acceptable ways, or the uncertainty that one will be able to do so.” In Canada, 12.9 per cent of households were considered food insecure in 2021. This number increased to 16.0 per cent in 2022.

Food security has become a growing issue on campus as well. In their 2022 annual report, the Campus Food Bank (CFB) reported 1,118 individuals served. In 2023 this number increased to 2,423 individuals.

Brent Swallow, a professor in the faculty of agricultural, life, and environmental sciences (ALES), explained that people who live in food deserts are at a greater vulnerability to food insecurity. Food deserts are typically low-income areas with limited access to nutritious foods. He noted that these days, the University of Alberta’s North Campus does not completely fall into this category anymore. The addition of H-Mart, No-Frills, and other smaller shops aids in providing more nutritious foods at accessible prices. Still, Swallow added that the area “is certainly not a food oasis.”

A food oasis can be categorized as an area with nutritious, affordable, and culturally appropriate foods that are easily accessible. As many individuals living in the campus area are lower income students, further efforts to transition from “food desert” to “food oasis” are needed. 

According to Swallows, community gardens and year-round farmers’ markets are partial ways to alleviate food deserts. Community gardens could be specifically useful for niche crops and small populations.

“Community gardens are good for producing specialty crops for people who are missing vegetables from home and want to connect to their food sources.”

“[If] we have such ability to do things differently, then why aren’t we?” Caine says

While the greenhouse acts as an educational resource for students, greenhouses and other local food systems have the potential to respond to local needs. For students who want to get involved in supporting local food systems, Caine firstly recommended getting involved. This can look like volunteering for the U of A farm, starting a community garden, or growing your own food. Secondly, Caine recommended pressuring the university to take steps to support local food systems through technological developments and the integration of spaces for food growing on campus.

“So the university itself is a small city, right? If that is the case and we have such ability to do things differently, then why aren’t we?” Caine asked. “Why don’t we have more greenhouses growing food on campus that could perhaps supply food banks? Or that could perhaps benefit students on campus?”

Ultimately, with a population of around 45,000, students have the most power to enact change on campus, Caine said.

“If there is a consensus that [we] need more food being grown on campus or more opportunities for students to get involved, you can make that happen.”